John McDonnell MP met with the Bakers union to discuss the next steps in the campaign to secure decent pay and working conditions for people working in the Fast Food Sector.

John said “I launched the campaign with the Bakers Union 12 months ago, recruiting staff and various fast food companies into the union. We linked up with the Fast Food campaign in America meeting with a delegation of their workers who are planing to form a global alliance of fast-food workers and organise a day of coordinated international protest in April to demand that workers get paid a living wage.”

Nick Allen, of US trade union federation Change to Win, said the globally-coordinated version of the US fast-food protests -; which included occupying restaurant outlets and blocking roads -; would be the biggest ever protest against low pay. “It will be a massive strike,” he said. “And this time it will be global, not just the US.”

Ian Hodson, president of the BFAWU, said: “Achieving £10 an hour would take 5 million people out of poverty. £10 is the minimum wage we demand in this country. We applaud what the Fight for 15 campaign has achieved in the US and we want to learn from them how we could make the same impact over here.” He told a rally at the headquarters of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in London. “This is about changing society and changing our country. This is not about left and right, it’s about right and wrong, and we’re right and they’re wrong. They [UK fast-food workers] shouldn’t have to hope for justice, they should be able to afford justice.”

John McDonnell said “I approached the BFAWU, which represents many Greggs workers, to ask it to stand up for fast-food workers after management at McDonald’s, Burger King and KFC refused to meet to discuss workers’ pay.”